


Missa in angustiis

by golden_d



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Community: writerinadrawer, Gen, WriterInADrawer 4.02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-16
Updated: 2010-06-16
Packaged: 2017-10-10 03:50:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/golden_d/pseuds/golden_d
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This story was written for Writer in a Drawer 4.02.</p><p>The requirements were:</p><p>Prompt: Things That Go Thump In the Night.  Someone is woken from their sleep by a strange or unexpected sound.<br/>Added Element: Two or more words in any foreign language(s).</p><p>If you are interested in this contest please visit http://community.livejournal.com/writerinadrawer for more information.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Missa in angustiis

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for Writer in a Drawer 4.02.
> 
> The requirements were:
> 
> Prompt: Things That Go Thump In the Night. Someone is woken from their sleep by a strange or unexpected sound.  
> Added Element: Two or more words in any foreign language(s).
> 
> If you are interested in this contest please visit http://community.livejournal.com/writerinadrawer for more information.

Alice awakes to the sound of nothing. There are no feet running down the stairs, no shaking of presents in their boxes, none of the normal, excited holiday sounds. Her house is silent and empty.

Her neck hurts. Part of this is sleeping on the sofa, which, while comfortable for sitting, isn't quite long enough for sleeping on. The other part of this, she discovers when she sits up, is that she has been using the remote as a neck pillow.

She turns on the television just so things won't be so quiet and goes upstairs. This has become her routine: Wake up on the sofa, take a shower in hopes of easing some of the soreness out of her muscles. Dry off, dress, go downstairs, make tea.

At Tesco last week, she saw a display of Cadbury's Dairy Milk, and thought, _I'll have to get some of those for Steven's stocking, they're his favourite._

But of course Steven doesn't have a stocking this year, and every time she thinks of that she wishes she were strong enough to cry. Alice couldn't even bring herself to put up a Christmas tree, or even to buy something nice for the evening's dinner. She'll probably order Chinese takeaway.

That Welsh woman from Torchwood sent her a gift basket—fruit and nuts and toffee and a thoroughly impersonal card. The side of her that cares about etiquette thinks that she should have sent a card back. The rest of her thinks that Torchwood owes her a hell of a lot more than a gift basket.

Alice pours herself a cup of tea and sits back down in front of the television. _Et in terra pax_, a boys' choir is singing, and Alice hurls the remote at the screen. There is no peace.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Foxy for being a consistently amazing beta!


End file.
